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How I Met Your Motherhas never really been a show to throw cliff-hangers our way. It’s happened occasionally at the end of a season, as is true with most sitcoms, but that’s about it. That being said, the end of last week’s episode was definitely meant to have everyone on the edge of their seats. Aside from Ted meeting the mother, the biggest story so far this season has been Marshall finding a way to break the news to Lily that he’s going to be a judge. With the end of last week’s episode leading us to believe she now knew, there wasn’t much question that was going to be the focus of this episode, but fortunately for us, instead of watching Marshall endure her wrath, we got to see everyone attempt to keep Marshall’s secret safe in the funniest ways possible.

The episode begins with Lily calling Marshall to express her anger at the fact he got them the room with the ghost. That means he has some extra time to try to prevent Lily from seeing the text message Daphne sent about his judgeship. He has to recruit the help of his friends at the inn though, since he’s still stuck somewhere in the Midwest. Their efforts at getting the phone are definitely aided by the fact that she’s focused on the ghost, but ultimately it’s the most obvious of solutions that presents itself to Ted.

It’s always a nice touch when an episode starts with future Ted talking to his kids. Sometimes they’ll go far too long without including those scenes or any voice-over from future Ted, and that can cause focus to be taken away from the fact the whole concept of this show is it’s Ted telling his kids a story. It’s especially annoying when an episode is set up as Ted telling someone else a story, such as was the case in season 8. That then means that we have Ted telling his kids a story about the time he told a story about something that happened to him. If that sounds like a bit too much to you, then we’re on the same page. Still, it’s the subjective nature of this being Ted’s story that has led to so many great moments in the show. While there isn’t any real use for him speaking to his kids in this one, the fact it actually happens is a positive in itself.

The moment between Robin and Barney is the same predictable rubbish that their relationship has been throwing at us for the last season and a half. Every single episode they fight about something stupid, admit that maybe they won’t be able to work things out, and then have a moment where they realize they can try to make things work, and them attempting to overcome that obstacle is supposed to be an “aww” moment for us. Well it’s not. Maybe the first time or two it was, but at this point it’s so overplayed that it’s become annoying. The only saving moment of Barney and Robin in this episode is that their “issues” are hardly shown, with the focus falling on the other, funnier plot.